True Magic
by FortuneDP
Summary: A mysterious group suddenly arises in the Sinnoh region and wizards are disappearing. Professor Rowan sends Lucas and Dawn, two young wizards, to scout the problem. Of course, nothing ever goes according to plan, and the two are thrust into the midst of the most eccentric journey they have ever experienced.
1. Chapter 1

True Magic

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

A/N: This is just a trial story. I don't know if I really will continue it or not; it just depends on the feelings of the readers, so please review and let me know what you think.

Chapter One

"Here."

Lucas popped up from behind a bookshelf suddenly and deposited an enormous stack of books in Dawn's arms.

"You can start with these."

Dawn gaped.

"You're kidding! There've got to be at least two hundred books in this heap!"

Lucas shrugged and pointed Dawn to a sturdy desk.

"Then you'd better get started. Those are only the beginner books for magic. They don't even teach you spell-casting yet."

"What?" shrieked Dawn. "Then what are they for?"

"They teach you the basics about magic," Lucas said patiently. "I gave you the choice between reading and hearing me lecture, and you chose reading."

"Well, I didn't know that I would have to read a _mountain_ of books, did I?"

"So would you rather hear me lecture you, even if it'll be, I quote you, 'Boring and boring and more boring'?"

Dawn nodded fervently and Lucas smiled.

"Alright. Put the books away."

"Sure."

Dawn quickly relinquished her grasp on the volumes, the huge pile tumbling down.

"Hey, hey!" shouted Lucas, throwing out a hand and forming a net of aura to catch the books. "I said to put them back, not drop them," he said severely, pointing at the bookshelves.

Dawn moaned. "If you were asked to do it, you could just snap your fingers and enchant the books to make them go back by themselves. I actually have to do it by hand." Grumbling, the girl slowly picked up book by book and placed them back while Lucas held his aura net in place.

"Could you speed it up?" complained Lucas. "I'm dying over here."

Dawn shot him a nasty glare. "Then do it yourself. Besides, you're not even the one doing anything. _I'm_ the one dying."

True enough, Dawn was soaked with sweat, considering that the library they were in spanned the length of about a mile. Lucas glared back.

"Here's your first lesson in magic. Using any spell takes lots of energy, and uses your aura – your magical force – to generate the magic. For beginners like us, even this simple net I've made here costs a lot of energy for me."

Dawn rolled her eyes.

"Then enchant the books."

"I don't know how."

Dawn gasped dramatically. "Do you mean to say that the mighty Lucas doesn't know something?"

"Just hurry up," demanded Lucas irritably. "You've got at least a hundred books left, and none of them can touch the ground, or else they'll get dirty and Professor Rowan will be really mad."

"Fine," sighed Dawn, speeding up her pace slightly.

By the time Dawn had put the books away, Lucas was panting for breath as he collapsed on the floor. Wiping sweat from his forehead, he hurriedly grabbed a glass of water from the desk and gulped it down. Dawn was tapping her foot impatiently.

"Now that I've put the books away, can the lecture begin?"

Setting the glass down, Lucas turned and nodded. Reaching behind the desk, he pulled out a board and some markers.

"Are you ready?"

"Totally."

"Alright, pay attention." Lucas began to draw on the board, and he soon had a neat diagram. "Here we go. Now, magic is the physical representation of aura, the magical force that wizards possess. This circle," Lucas tapped the shape, "represents aura. Branching off from this, we have many different kinds of magic.

"For instance," Lucas pointed to a square branched off from the circle, "we have here elemental magic, consisting of any magic related to the four classical elements of fire, water, air, and earth. Then, we can branch from elemental magic into other kinds of spells related to the elements, but not specifically any of the four elements. Spells utilizing ice, lightning, plants, and other elements fall into this category.

"Separate from this, we have another section of spells called summoning spells. These, as their name indicates, produce, or summon, something depending on the spell that is cast. There are more types of spells other than elemental and summoning, but you get the idea, right?"

Dawn nodded attentively.

"Good. Let's move on."

As Lucas began to talk about the properties of aura, Dawn slowly began to zone out into her fantasy world. Staring at Lucas, she smiled shyly. The nineteen-year-old lab assistant helped the famous regional professor, Professor Rowan, in his research about magic and its evolution over time. Of course, each region had its own professor, but Rowan was the master in the Sinnoh region. Dawn's grasp on her attention to Lucas's lecture slowly slipped as she completely blanked and focused simply on Lucas.

There was no doubt in her mind that he was handsomest, cutest man she had ever seen in all of her eighteen years of life. She began to look at every little detail on him. His blue hair spiked inconsistently, but was hid by a neat beret. His eyes were a lovely stone gray that could be filled with warmth and promise and sometimes harden to resemble real rocks. His eyebrows scrunched slightly whenever he focused, and they were currently tensed. Dawn decided that he looked cuter when he was relaxed. Her gaze lowered slightly as she examined his mouth. The smallest amount of stubble was slowly appearing over his lip. His jaw was moving rapidly, and the motion suddenly snapped Dawn back to reality and the fact that she was supposed to be paying attention to Lucas's lecture.

Desperately, she attempted to snatch onto the last bits of what he was saying.

"…and so, with my aura, I find that aura spells – another branch of magic that directly utilizes aura – is easier. You probably noticed that from my aura net earlier. Thus, we have concluded that a person's aura leans towards certain branches and categories of magic. Again, I've found that aura spells are to my preference, but let's do a little experiment with yours, okay?"

Dawn nodded.

"Hold your hands out and cup them together. Then, imagine your aura. Whatever you feel like it should be, it is. When I first summoned my own aura, it was exactly as I imagined it – a sort of pulsing, glowing field. Let's see what you come up with. Evidently, the appearance of your aura can indicate the spells that your aura prefers. I'm going to get a book, but try to do it, okay? Summon up your aura into your hands."

Dawn followed his instructions dutifully and closed her eyes. Breathing softly, she relaxed completely as she thought about what aura would be like.

_Hmm… I never really thought of it like Lucas did. What did I think of it as? A foggy glow? No, that's not right… A flowing ribbon? Sort of, but not right either… Oh! That's right!_

Dawn opened her eyes and looked at her cupped palms. Sure enough, her aura was sitting in her hands.

"Lucas, I did it!" she yelled. After a few moments of rummaging, Lucas appeared from behind a bookcase looking extremely surprised.

"Already?" he asked, amazed. Toting a book with him, he glanced at her palms and then stared queerly at it.

"What?" asked Dawn.

"You imagine aura to be… vanilla ice cream?"

"Yeah!" said Dawn happily. "It's like a really thick ribbon that's really soft and absolutely luscious! And it's shiny and it glows!"

"Well, this is just strange." Lucas looked away from the glowing soft serve in Dawn's palms and attempted to locate it in the book he had found. "If I had to guess, I would say ice and water spells are your preference. Yep," he said, finding the passage for vanilla ice cream auras. "It says right here. 'Wizards with auras resembling vanilla ice cream or soft serve generally tend to be in favor of spells based on water and ice. However, they also excel at casting spells related to air. These wizards are typically not proficient in casting spells of other elements, although their abilities in other branches of magic are not disrupted by this.' Hmm… it also says to not confuse vanilla ice cream auras with other flavored ice creams. Apparently, the flavor of the ice cream determines the preference. That's just weird."

Snapping the book shut, he put it on the desk for future reference and smiled slightly at Dawn. "That was fast. It usually takes more than a few minutes for a wizard to pull up the aura. It took me almost five tries to get a tiny trickle of it."

Dawn grinned. "I guess I'm a natural then."

Lucas nodded. "Alright, I won't hold you anymore today. You can go, although I recommend taking some books to study from. _Not_ any spell books, or you will regret it," said Lucas, severely cutting off the hope that had flashed in her eyes. Dawn grumbled and refused to take a single book.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then," said Lucas, seeing Dawn to the door.

"Yep!"

He smiled his small smile again. Dawn grinned back and left the library, trekking back to her home. Lucas watched her leave and then went back to Professor Rowan's lab.

Dawn collapsed on her bed back in her own home and thought over her day. Deciding that it was good, she contentedly decided to sleep. There was only one thing that bothered her. Lucas's smile seemed a little off for some reason. It was there, sincere, but something was wrong. Dawn was slightly worried, but quickly brushed it off. She needed her sleep for tomorrow, and she was going to get it!


	2. Chapter 2

True Magic

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

Chapter Two

"So you're finally learning wizardry," said Johanna, Dawn's mother, over breakfast, smiling at her daughter. Dawn nodded hastily as she gulped down a spoonful of oatmeal.

"Yeah, Lucas is a great teacher to have."

Johanna smirked.

"Why's that?"

"Well," said Dawn, taking a break from her inhalation of breakfast, "he's really smart and he explains things well. I could tell that just from yesterday. Plus, he's really nice."

Johanna's grin broadened.

"He's cute, isn't he?"

"I guess…" Dawn continued to eat to hide her faintly pink cheeks.

"Well, have fun together," winked Johanna as Dawn finished her breakfast. Rolling her eyes, Dawn grabbed her bag and left.

"I'll be back in the evening, Mom."

"Of course. Have a nice day, dear."

"Bye!"

Briefly glancing at her watch, Dawn shrieked when she realized she only had about three minutes to get to Sandgem. She quickly sped off to town.

"You're late," was Lucas's greeting when she sped into the library. "By ten minutes."

"Sorry," gasped Dawn, choking for breath. "I lost track of time."

"Alright. Well, get ready for today's lesson."

Dawn centered herself at a desk and quickly focused on Lucas and the board.

"Since you showed such a prowess in aura control yesterday," said Lucas, "Professor Rowan deemed you ready to learn basic spell casting. I guess I'll be teaching you your first basic spells."

Dawn gleefully cheered, yet his words seemed tinged with bitterness. Again, the naïve girl brushed it off as she attentively prepared for her first spell.

"Here," said Lucas, placing a book on her desk. "I just got the book this morning for you. Keep it."

"Oh, no," said Dawn, shaking her head vehemently. "I couldn't. I'll pay for it, you don't have to."

Lucas smiled.

"It's fine. It's just a book."

"Are you sure?"

Lucas nodded.

Hesitantly, Dawn examined the title. Reading aloud, she said, "_An Introduction to the Art of Elemental Magic._ Cool!"

Losing all sense of apprehension and instead gaining a feeling of nervousness, she opened pristine tome and read over the table of contents.

"You'll be learning a very simple spell today, an offensive water spell," said Lucas as Dawn scanned the contents. "It's called the Bubble Spell. It's on page fifty-seven."

"Wait a second… If I'm specializing in water, ice, and air magic, why did you get me a book of all the elements?"

"It's always good to have an understanding of any spell, so that if someone uses it against you, you'll know what the spell does and how to counter it," explained Lucas. "So you will have to study spells that you won't even cast."

Dawn moaned.

"Excess studying? That's boring!"

"That's _life_."

Pouting, Dawn turned to the page Lucas had indicated. "'The Bubble Spell. Description: A spray of countless bubbles is jetted at the foe. Level of difficulty: basic.' Come on," complained Dawn. "Surely there exists a more _challenging_ spell for me to first use?"

"It's always good to start with the easiest spell. If you overexert yourself, you can use up too much aura and damage yourself. You can fall unconscious, and, in some of the more serious cases I've read about, you can actually harm your magical powers," warned Lucas.

"Fine," sighed Dawn. "How does spell casting work anyways? Like, how do bubbles just appear?"

"Here's the lesson part of today," said Lucas. "With elemental magic, there are two ways you can actually do the magic. One way is a direct transformation of your aura into whatever spell you're casting. The second method is to imbue the element of choice with your aura; then, you can control the element by controlling your aura. Of course, for the second choice, you actually need some of the material with you. For the bubbles, you would need to have water. Using the first method generally requires more energy but doesn't need the actual substance. So, we'll learn the less strenuous way first by actually using water."

Lucas reached behind his board and grabbed a bowl of water. Setting it down in front of Dawn, he pointed to the book.

"It'll explain everything."

Dawn read the instructions.

"'To cast the spell with water present, it is necessary to imbue the water with your aura,'" read Dawn. "'To do so, visualize your aura and place it in the water. Attempt to bond your aura to the element.' How am I supposed to bond my aura to the water?"

"Summon your aura first," instructed Lucas. Dawn quickly held out a palm and allowed the vanilla ice cream soft serve aura to materialize. "Now pour it into the water."

Dawn tilted her hand, but the moment her aura left her palm, it disintegrated into the air.

"You have to concentrate. Keep the aura in existence and pour it into the water."

Focusing her entire power on the small handful of aura, Dawn slowly trickled the power into the water. Staring at it intently, she asked, "Now what? It's just sitting there."

"Now comes the even harder part, although doing this with water, ice, and air will be easier for you since you lean towards those spells," said Lucas. "You have to convince the water to accept your aura. Since your aura already prefers the element of water, it'll be somewhat easier."

"How do I convince the water?" asked a bewildered Dawn. A bit of her aura vanished as she lost concentration for a second. Lucas pondered over the question.

"Imagine it like this," Lucas said slowly. "I don't know if this will help, but think of it like you have to make the water think your aura is water. Don't actually try to change your aura to water, just make the water think so."

"But how?" wailed Dawn, more of her aura disappearing as she struggled to maintain the concentration.

"It's hard, but you'll know how to do it after the first time," said Lucas. "I had trouble too when I did my first spell. You just have to coax the water to meld with your aura."

"So I have to mix them together? Like a cake batter?"

"Sort of."

Concentrating with all her might, Dawn glared at the bowl of water and her aura and forced her aura to slowly swirl. She slowly gained an idea and descended down to a molecular level. Each molecule of water was floating around in the liquid, as Dawn imagined. Her aura was a little ice cream molecule. Snapping her eyes shut, she mentally smashed the ice cream and water molecules together. In her mind, the two were stuck together, but still separate entities.

"Way to go," congratulated Lucas. "It took me a pretty long time to get it my first time too, so don't worry about it."

Dawn gasped and opened her eyes. Her luminous ice cream aura had dissolved into the water, leaving a glowing solution behind.

"I did it! I did it!"

"Nice. Once your aura is bound to the object, it stays like that for a while depending on how much aura you put in and the amount of element you dealt with. While it's still powered up with magic, you can control it. Eventually, the magic will wear off, but there are spells you can use to prevent the decay. That's for later though, and right now, you need to try to actually make bubbles."

"How?"

"The aura in the water is still a part of you. Just control it and pull out a bubble of aura. The water is stuck to it and will follow the aura."

Dawn slowly breathed out as she tugged at the aura in the bowl. She carefully pulled out a single bubble.

"Cool," said Dawn, admiring her handiwork. "What happens to the bubble now?"

"Well, you can direct it at something to attack, although you generally want more bubbles than just one," said Lucas, slightly amused.

"Fine," pouted Dawn, focusing back on the water.

A few minutes later, an array of bubbles were floating around the library haphazardly, Dawn not really caring about controlling them.

"Hey, hey, hey!" yelped Lucas, sending out darts of aura from his fingertips to pop bubbles getting too close to the books. "Be careful, and don't get the books wet."

"What do I do with all these bubbles, then?"

"You can still control the aura. Direct them at something to attack with them."

Lucas turned around to check on the other bubbles when he was suddenly drenched in water. Seething, he turned around to see Dawn giggling and pointing a finger at him.

"Did you really have to send them at me?" asked Lucas. Dawn continued to guffaw until she saw another object of interest.

"Hey, what's that?"

Once again, Dawn's attention wandered as she suddenly noticed a wooden staff propped up against the desk. It was about four feet long and made of a fairly strong wood cut to fit within a person's grasp. Extending from the top of the dark brown wood, a clear sphere was set in the middle of four holders carved from the wood.

"Oh, that's a project that I've been working on for the past few weeks. I just finished it. It's a magical weapon."

"Weapon? Why would you need a weapon when you can cast spells?"

"Well, this staff is special in the fact that it can channel my aura to make spells more powerful. So, I put my spell and aura into the staff and the staff amplifies the power of the spell quite a bit."

Hefting the weapon in the air, Lucas twirled it around his fingers a few times like a baton.

"You'll probably want a weapon eventually as well."

"What's the orb for?" asked Dawn, pointing to the clear sphere.

Lucas grinned.

"That's a little fancy addition of mine. It can store some of my aura and I can tap into its reserves if I'm low on power. You know those spells I said that could force an object to retain magic for long periods of time?" Dawn nodded. "Those are exactly what I put on the orb."

"That's cool, but you probably want to dry off," smirked Dawn. "I wouldn't want you to catch a cold."

"Considering that you're the one who soaked me, I'd say you do want me to get sick. Why don't you pull the water away from me? It should still be connected to you," retorted Lucas.

Rolling her eyes, Dawn made a coaxing motion with her hand. Sure enough, Lucas was soon dry as the water made its way back to Dawn as she slid it into the bowl.

"You're really getting the hang of this, aren't you?" asked Lucas.

"Yeah, it's not too hard. You just have to concentrate really well."

"Alright. Well, let's get you started on direct spells."

"What?"

"Direct spells are the spells that change your aura into the element."

Flipping the page, Lucas pointed at a paragraph.

"Read that."

Dawn did so, and Lucas began explaining as she finished up.

"With direct spells, it's a little bit harder because your aura has to change into the element. It's like alchemy; you'll have to change one substance into another. The good thing about direct spells is that you don't need to summon bubbles from a body of water. You can just pull bubbles out of your aura. Once you change your aura to water, the water is already magical, so you don't have to worry about that."

Dawn extended a hand and fixated her gaze on it as her shining aura began to develop around it.

"Imagine your aura as water, and it should automatically make the change. You just have to will it enough."

Soon, water was sloshing uncontrollably from Dawn's fingertips.

"Careful!" yelped Lucas. "Only change as much aura as you need and no more so stuff like this doesn't happen!"

Lucas snatched away Dawn's book and snapped the fingers of his other hand. A flame lit in his palm and he held it over the desk. Sending a pulse of power through the fire, the heat blasted throughout the room, drying the desk completely.

"Try again," said Lucas. "Not too much, and remember that you still need to pull away bubbles from it."

Dawn sighed and focused on the task at hand again. After a few minutes of total concentration, bubbles began to appear from her fingertips, each finger sending out a stream of spheres.

"Good job," said Lucas. "Now call them back. When you do direct spells, you can change the spell back to aura and absorb it back. Try it."

Unfortunately, Dawn was startled out of her concentration as the library door suddenly slammed open. The bubbles all bursting in a row, Lucas immediately turned to face the unexpected visitor.

"Oh, Professor," said Lucas, relaxing. "Is there a problem?"

"Quite a big one," boomed the trench coat-wearing professor as he strode over to the two. "I see you're teaching Dawn. Well, good, good, but have either of you heard the news lately?"

Both of the young wizards shook their heads.

"Well, wizards have been disappearing across the region," said the professor, a worried look clearly flashing in his eyes. Lucas and Dawn's eyes widened as Rowan continued. "They've simply vanished. Most of the disappearances are around Veilstone City, and many have also vanished around Eterna."

"Do you have any idea –"

"No," interrupted Professor Rowan curtly. "I don't. And that's why I need your help."

"Our help?" asked Dawn. "That can't be good."

For the first time since Dawn had ever met him, Professor Rowan let out a deep laugh.

"I suppose, but even so, we must do whatever possible. I need you two to go out there and find those mages. The entire region is clamoring, and it's my duty as the regional professor to deal with these things."

"But Dawn isn't anywhere near ready to fight for real, and I'm not either," said Lucas. "We need some time."

Professor Rowan nodded. "You'll get time, but not much. You've only got a week."

Dawn bit her lip worriedly. Lucas, however, seemed unworried.

"That'll be enough, Professor."

"Good."

"We'll need to get weapons, books, ingredients, food and water…"

Lucas began ticking off things to pack, but Dawn simply sat there, looking slightly panicked. Lucas and Professor Rowan talked for a short while before the professor left.

"Well, we'd better hurry and cram as much as possible," sighed Lucas. "It looks like we're dealing with a real threat." Taking note of Dawn's scared expression, his eyes softened slightly. "Are you okay?"

Dawn shivered in response.

"I know it seems kind of scary, but we can't just let this go. If wizards are just vanishing, there might be some sort of rebel group planning on taking over the region."

"But why us? I just started learning magic, and you've only been in here for a year!"

"I don't know," Lucas said softly. "I guess no one else wanted the job." Eyes suddenly turning steely, Lucas continued in a much more business-like manner. "You'll need to prepare a magical bag that'll let you bring along as many necessities as you need. We'll also need to learn as much magic as possible in the time being. You need a weapon too. Some books to bring along would be good backup as well."

"I… I guess…"

"Let's stop for today, alright? Go home, rest, but come back tomorrow knowing we've got lots of work to do. Alright?"

Dawn nodded quietly.

"See you tomorrow then," Lucas said, picking up his staff and escorting Dawn to the library doors.

"Bye," said Dawn, eyes shaded with fear as she left for her home...

* * *

"Here," muttered Lucas the next day when they met up in the lab. He thrust three hairclips identical to the ones Dawn wore, except blue, at the girl. Dawn picked them up and examined them.

"Uh, thanks?"

"They're enchanted," said Lucas. "I found them in a store yesterday and thought that I might as well do something. They'll store your aura, but they won't look suspicious since they're just hairclips."

"Really? Wow… By the way, there's something I've been meaning to ask you," said Dawn as she replaced her hairclips. "How do I put aura in them?"

"Just bind your aura to the clips like you would to an element."

"How much aura can these store, anyways?" asked Dawn as she poured power into the blue clips. Lucas shrugged.

"At least enough to restore half your aura."

"What?" asked Dawn, amazed. "How?"

"I did some major spell-working yesterday," said Lucas. "I managed to do one of the stronger magic-storing spells on your clips so that when you store your power in it, the aura is extremely condensed so that you can fit more."

"And then you cast one of those spells that makes the object retain the magic, right?"

"Exactly."

Dawn wobbled slightly when she felt that the clips couldn't take any more of her aura.

"I'm tired…"

Lucas rushed forward and caught her as she suddenly collapsed.

"Did you fill the clips all the way?" asked Lucas, panicking. Dawn nodded sleepily.

"You just drained away about half of your aura," said Lucas. "Sorry – I forgot to tell you not to do that."

He pulled Dawn over to a seat and placed her in it, her head lolling slightly.

"By the way," muttered Dawn, "do I just lose my aura and not get it back? Because then it seems kind of pointless…"

"No, your aura naturally replenishes when it's not being used," said Lucas, making sure that Dawn was set securely. Of course, the moment he let go of her, she tumbled out of the chair.

Lucas suddenly found himself underneath Dawn as she sleepily clung to his jacket. Deciding to fall asleep, the young woman laid her head in the crook of Lucas's shoulder and buried her head into his neck.

Rather annoyed, Lucas attempted to push himself off of the floor, but when he lifted himself slightly off the ground, Dawn suddenly hugged him tightly and stopped his arms from moving.

"Oof!"

Lucas dropped back down and sighed as the girl currently nuzzling his neck with her nose prevented him from moving.

"You are infuriating, you know that?" he seethed. "How do you even do something like this when you're _asleep_?"

After the anger died down, Lucas finally noticed that he was in a rather compromising position with Dawn. As the realization settled in, his cheeks flared up in a red blaze as he all the more struggled to get out from underneath her, yet as he struggled, Dawn clung tighter still.

"Would you let go of me before someone comes and sees us?" hissed Lucas. Dawn simply contentedly snuggled her human pillow.

Speaking of someone coming, the door to the lab creaked open.

"ROWAN?"

The professor's assistant decided to use his last resort measures. Quickly flaring his aura, he blasted Dawn away from him. She happened to land perfectly in the seat and continued to sleep happily.

Quickly getting up, he dusted himself off before going to see the visitor. It certainly was not anyone that worked in the lab.

"Uh, hello?" asked Lucas hesitantly as he saw the rather angry woman standing at the entrance of the lab.

"Hi. Now tell me, where is the idiot man who dares call himself a regional professor?" seethed the blue-haired lady.

"Uh… not here yet?"

She harrumphed.

"Do you happen to have a waiting area then?"

"Um… sure, come right this way."

He led the woman to the back where Dawn was currently sleeping and gestured to another chair. She paid no attention as she gasped and ran to Dawn.

"Dawn? WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU? DON'T WORRY, I'LL SAVE YOU, DEAR!"

"Hey, wait!" said Lucas.

The woman spread tendrils of magic to Dawn. The gaseous spell wafted under Dawn's nose, startling her awake with a revolting smell.

"Ugh, eww!" yelped Dawn as she leapt away from the smell. "Mom, what are you doing here? And I thought I told you to never use that spell on me again!"

"You were unconscious," declared the woman who was Dawn's mother. "I saved you from these awful people."

"Mom, I wasn't unconscious," said an exasperated Dawn. "I just drained too much of my aura. I'll be fine."

The woman scrutinized her daughter for a moment before relaxing.

"Alright. Now, I just have to find that evil man and lecture him. How could he even think of sending you off on such a dangerous job when you haven't even been learning wizardry for a week yet?"

"Mom, I thought I told you not to storm here and yell."

"How could I not?"

Dawn sighed and walked over to a rather confused Lucas.

"Lucas, that's my mom. Mom, this is Lucas, my teacher-slash-friend."

At that word, Lucas turned a queer look on Dawn.

"Friend? When did that establishment come up?"

Dawn shrugged.

"Oh, well it's nice to meet you," said Johanna, shaking Lucas's hand. "Now, I just have to wait for the idiot – I mean, Professor Rowan."

Knowing that the slipup was no mistake, Dawn rolled her eyes. Lucas simply looked amused as Johanna occupied the seat that Dawn had slept in.

"Who are you calling an idiot, Mrs. Johanna?"

The professor stepped in the door.

"Oh, hello, Professor!" Johanna said brightly as she waltzed over to him. "Now, I just have a question."

"Yes?" asked Rowan, an eyebrow raised.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, SENDING DAWN OUT ON A MISSION LIKE THIS?"

Dawn sighed and pulled Lucas out of the lab as Johanna exploded.

"Let's go do something productive."

"How about getting you a weapon?" suggested Lucas, walking along with his own staff. "I've got a good idea for material that you can use."

"What?"

"There's a certain kind of ice called NeverMeltIce. As you can probably guess, it never melts. It's already magical, and repels heat while boosting the power of ice spells, perfect for you. Of course, it'll also channel aura and make it stronger if we enchant it a little bit."

"Sounds good, but where can we find some?"

Lucas smiled.

"Lucky for you, we just got a shipment to study from Snowpoint City. We can use some of it. But first, let's get some spell books and figure out what you want to do to the ice."

Heading into the library, both wizards browsed the bookshelves and pulled down some volumes. Once they were done, they sat together at the desk with the heap of books and skimmed them.

"Definitely this," said Dawn. "Aura-enhancing. Is that what you did to your staff?"

"Yeah. How about this as well? Or that…"

After a while, they decided to only use two spells; one that would boost aura and one that would strengthen the ice to make it less brittle. Lucas quickly copied the spells as Dawn put the books away.

"Now, we should probably buy some books to bring along. You never know when we might need them," said Lucas.

"Sure," said Dawn.

"We should probably try and cover the basic topics between us both, so let's split up and buy what we think we'll need," said Lucas as they arrived at the bookstore.

Lucas quickly scanned the aisle on elements and pulled a few books down before moving onto the aura section. Dawn, on the other hand, curiously examined a shelf full of books under the category of healing.

After about an hour, the two each had selected ten books they thought they would benefit from and quickly went back to the lab. Upon nearing the building, Dawn clasped her head in exasperation as they heard a familiar voice yelling.

"… and I don't know how you could expect _either_ of them to do such a complicated task! I'll have to go too, and then everything will be chaos!"

"You do not have to go, Johanna."

The bickering did not cease as Dawn and Lucas entered the building. Both Johanna and the professor barely spared them a glance as they found the sample of NeverMeltIce and began to work on it.

"Okay, so what did you have in mind for the weapon shape?" asked Lucas.

"Well, just a small wand, I guess…"

"Alright."

Lucas found a decently sized piece of ice about fifteen inches long and quickly shaved it down until Dawn decided that it was acceptable. Holding it in her hand and tossing it a few times, Dawn nodded.

"Why isn't it cold, though?" asked Dawn.

"Since you lean toward ice spells, you generally are immune to the sensation of 'cold'. Of course, that means heat will be especially hard for you to bear," said Lucas. "Now, let's get to those spells. Here's another lesson today. Some spells require you to make potions. Of course, potions and spells are completely different, but some spells' power lies within something you make. For the aura-enhancer spell, we'll need to do that. The ingredient cupboard is over there, if you ever need it. You read the ingredients, I'll get the stuff."

Dawn took the paper and started listing off ingredients.

"Water, sage, basil, thyme, thigh of chicken, tongue of cow, this sounds like a cooking show!"

"Just keep reading," said Lucas as he placed the ingredients on a counter.

"Seven keys from a grand piano, hydrochloric acid, grass fertilizer, powdered rose petals, rabbit fur, and a piece of the same material as whatever you're applying the spell too, so some NeverMeltIce. That's it."

"Okay," said Lucas, hauling out a cauldron and lighting a fire underneath it. "Come over here, you should practice this."

Dawn began to make the spell, measuring ingredients and dumping them in. Soon enough, the spell was bubbling violently just as the procedure said it would.

"Okay, now we have to add the NeverMeltIce," said Dawn, dropping a piece of it into the cauldron. "And now, I have to mix my aura into it." Dawn dripped some of her magic into the boiling solution, binding it to the spell. "Finally, we end with the piano keys."

Soon, the potion was finished and simmering, awaiting Dawn's wand.

"Just put the wand in the spell," said Lucas. "Hold your wand in it until the spell is completely absorbed."

To Dawn's amazement, the glowing liquid began to collect in her wand the moment the ice touched the potion. Soon enough, the cauldron was empty and Dawn's wand was filled with the spell. After a few minutes, the last traces of it disappeared, leaving the wand normal again.

"Good job on your first potion-spell," said Lucas. "Now let's make the wand a little bit more durable. For this spell, we're not going to make a potion, but rather a piece of parchment."

Taking a rectangular piece of paper, Lucas dipped a brush into magical ink and quickly wrote characters over the paper.

"What I'm doing right now is making a spell matrix, also known as a spell diagram. It's a diagram that activates its magical powers once you input aura," said Lucas finishing off the spell with a small swish. "Put your two index fingers here and pulse the ink with aura."

Dawn did so, and the ink was soon glowing brightly.

"Now, stick it on your wand."

Taking the paper, Dawn wrapped it around the base of the NeverMeltIce. The paper slowly disintegrated and left the ink imbued into the base of the wand.

"There. Now, your wand should be set for now," said Lucas. "I wonder what's going on out there…"

He looked out the room and into the hall; Rowan and Johanna were out of his sight, but he heard a shriek and what sounded like a vase smashing the wall.

"Never mind, I don't want to know."

"Thanks for everything today, Lucas," said Dawn, leaving her mom to destroy the lab.

"No problem. Just make sure you study, okay? We'll need to be ready as soon as possible. For the rest of the week, we'll be learning more magic."

"Okay."

"Get supplies, a bag, and most of all, rest."

"Okay."

"And remind me to never go near you when you fall asleep."

"Okay… Wait, what?"


	3. Chapter 3

True Magic

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

Chapter Three

"I think this spell will do the trick. We'll need to use the local center's teleport diagram, but it'll get us to Eterna City much faster," said Lucas, gesturing towards a teleportation spell. Their allotted time of one week was used up, and they prepared to leave Sandgem Town.

"Why Eterna City?" asked Dawn, examining the spell's description.

"I figured since most of the wizards are disappearing there, we should start there as well. What do you think of the spell?"

"It's seems good, although I don't really understand what this is about centers and teleport diagrams…"

"Well, with this spell, you can teleport to any place with a certified teleportation diagram. You usually find them at a town or city's local wizard rest center, but some people have managed to get a hold of them in their own houses, offering rest stops for wizards."

"What local wizard rest center?"

"Didn't you see the huge red building out there? The one with a W sign?"

"Oh that? That's a rest center for wizards?"

"Yeah. Any wizard can stay at a rest center after offering proper identification. Speaking of which, you did get your official wizard ID, right?" asked Lucas.

"Yeah. Now, for this spell to Eterna –"

"I wouldn't go there if I were you two," said Professor Rowan, barging into the lab where Dawn and Lucas were currently situated. "I've just received news from Eterna's local master; it seems that a Block Spell has been put over the entire city."

"The entire place? That's a lot of power to keep running nonstop," said Lucas. "What will we do now?"

"I suggest you go to Floaroma Town first. From there, try to make your way to Eterna, but remember about the Block Spell."

"Excuse me, but what is the Block Spell?" interrupted Dawn.

"It prevents people from on the inside of it from leaving the affected area. Of course, you can enter, but you won't be able to get out afterwards," explained Lucas.

"Exactly. Now, Gardenia –"

"Who?" asked Dawn.

"Gardenia, Eterna's local master wizard. Now, if there are no more interruptions," Professor Rowan shot Dawn a nasty glare, "I was just about to explain what Gardenia told me. Evidently, she has discovered that it is not being powered directly by wizards, but rather by numerous spell tags placed all around the city. If you two can find the spell tags and eradicate them, the Block Spell will fall. Also, if you get into the city, seek the help of the local wizards. They will assist you."

Despite the thousands of questions ricocheting in Dawn's head, she kept quiet until Professor Rowan finished explaining. Finally, with one last breath, the professor eyed both young wizards.

"I am sorry to have to send you two out to do this, but please, do what you must and then come back safely."

A barely noticeable shimmer appeared in the man's eyes before he abruptly turned and left the lab.

"You probably have a ton of questions, and I'm pretty sure we learned about them this past week," sighed Lucas. "Go ahead."

"What's a master wizard? What's a _local_ master wizard? What's a spell tag?" blurted Dawn.

"Yeah, we learned about all of those," sighed Lucas. "A master wizard is one who is extremely talented in a branch of magic. In some cities over Sinnoh, there are local master wizards; they are charged with the task of protecting their city and the neighboring areas if needed. Luckily, there hasn't been any disturbance for the past century or so.

"Now, about spell tags. Remember that spell we put on your wand to make it less brittle? That used a spell tag. Spell tags are used to hold magic and release the spell over time. That way, no wizard has to oversee the entire process of magic and can instead just let the spell tag do the spell. Got all of that?"

"Yeah," said Dawn. "Well, we'd better get going. After all, we need to go to Floaroma and then Eterna from there."

"Yeah…" said Lucas.

They both hoisted their bags and left the lab. Before entering the wizard center, they both took a last look at the peaceful town of Sandgem.

"Will we come back?" asked Dawn softly.

"Of course. We don't even know if this will be a dangerous task yet," said Lucas, even though his eyes were saddened and worried.

"Let's go then," sighed Dawn, turning away from the beautiful morning sun of the town. "We need to start as soon as possible."

"Wait!"

Both young wizards turned at the call. Johanna was rushing at them at breakneck speed, a magical gust pushing her along.

"Take these," she gasped when she reached the duo. She dropped two identical objects into their hands.

"Um, thanks?" said Dawn, looking at the small piece of metal. "Is this some sort of headset that goes around one ear?"

The wire was shaped in such a way that it would sit on one side of the head yet protrude slightly.

"Those belonged to me and your father," said Johanna, a misty look overcoming her. "They're lenses. Press the button on the side."

Lucas and Dawn did so and were startled when lenses slid out of the metal. Lucas's lens was blue while Dawn's was red.

"Put them on," directed Johanna."

The two wizards did so and suddenly gasped when they looked through it. Johanna smiled tiredly.

"Yep. Those lenses allow you to see magic. Keep them safe."

"I couldn't," said Lucas, hurriedly taking the headpiece of and retracting the lens. "If this belonged to your husband, I couldn't take it –"

"Nonsense. You'll probably end up as my son-in-law anyways, and these are basically family heirlooms," said Johanna, waving a hand. After seeing the bright red face of Lucas and the infuriated, equally-red face of Dawn, Johanna realized what she had just said. "Oh. Uh, well, get going. I expect to see you home for dinner, Dawn."

And with that, Johanna gusted away, leaving the shocked pair on the steps of the wizard center.

"Um… well, that was very nice of her to give these to us," said Lucas, coughing slightly. The blush slowly descended from his cheeks, but his ears were still flaming, a clear contrast to his dark hair. Dawn nodded, lips sealed together as though she would never speak again due to embarrassment. She did speak again though.

"Hey Lucas?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are those spells we put on my wand lasting so long?"

"Because they're efficient. The little bit of aura you put into the spells is enough to keep them going. They require small amounts of power to generate the spell. You'll have to renew the magic eventually, say, in a year or two."

"Wow…"

"Excuse me…"

A young, pink-haired woman interrupted their conversation. "What can I help you with? I'm Nurse Joy, by the way."

"Uh, hi," said Lucas. "We'd like to teleport to Floaroma Town."

"Teleportation? Right this way."

The pink-haired nurse led them along path to a room.

"Slide your wizard identification cards there, please," she said, pointing to a slot. The door swung open after they were registered. On the floor, a large diagram had been drawn, filled with complex measurements and calculations.

"Write your names there, fill in the number of people traveling there, and pulse a bit of both of your auras into there. Then, stand in the center circle," directed Nurse Joy.

The two did as she instructed and then reluctantly stood in the middle. Slowly, the diagram began to glow, shimmering gently as power flowed throughout the diagram. Lucas and Dawn closed their eyes as the glow reached them, feeling the warmth of power engulf them.

When they next opened their eyes, it seemed as though there was no change, yet another Nurse Joy walked into the room and ushered them out.

"Are we really in Floaroma, Nurse Joy?" asked Dawn, taking a look at the identical surroundings.

"Yes, of course."

"Then why are you here?"

"What?"

"Shouldn't you be taking care of Sandgem Town's wizard center?"

Nurse Joy laughed.

"Oh, I'm not that Nurse Joy. I'm Floaroma Town's Nurse Joy. Sandgem Town's Nurse Joy is my younger sister."

"…"

"Have a nice day!" Nurse Joy said cheerfully as she went on her way.

"Let's go," said Lucas, dragging a still-stupefied Dawn.

They walked out into the town of Floaroma, inhaling the fresh scent of blooming flowers.

"Okay, we should go this way to get to Eterna –"

"Excuse me…"

Nurse Joy tapped their shoulders.

"You have a call from the esteemed Professor Rowan. Please come with me back to the center…"

The two wizards curiously followed the nurse, wondering why Rowan would suddenly call them right after they left. Upon entering the center, Nurse Joy led them to a computer where Professor Rowan could be seen on screen waiting impatiently.

"Thank you, Nurse Joy," Rowan said curtly. The nurse nodded and left, Professor Rowan turning his attention to Lucas and Dawn. "Now, you might be wondering why I'm calling you, so I'll tell you. If you have any questions at all, you'd best ask me right now before it's too late."

_Too late for what?_ thought Dawn, wincing at the thoughts that popped into her head.

"Here's a good one, Professor," said Lucas, slightly angrily. "Why does it seem like we're the only ones worrying about this?"

"I understand that you feel that way, but you're not," said the professor. "Most of the other wizards have deemed Veilstone City the first place to go to, and many are heading there. I believe that Pastoria City and Hearthome City wizards are leading this investigation. However, since Oreburgh is close to Eterna and may be attacked next, Roark has decided to launch full defensive measures. Most of the local masters have stayed put; after all, you never know what could happen if they were to leave their cities."

"Well, at least others are working on this," grumbled Lucas.

"Is there anything else?"

"Dawn?" asked Lucas. She shook her head.

"Alright then. I wish you two good luck in your rescue of Eterna City."

The screen blacked out. Lucas sighed and stood up.

"Let's go."

Soon, they left the gates of Floaroma Town and were heading onto Route 205. The sight of a crying little girl stopped them.

"What's wrong?" asked Dawn, hurrying to the girl and crouching down. "Are you alright?"

"They took Daddy!" bawled the youngster, pointing at a building further down. "They took Daddy and won't let him go!"

"Who?" asked Lucas. The girl sniffled.

"I… I think they called themselves Team Galactic…"

Lucas and Dawn glanced at each other and nodded simultaneously.

"We'll save your dad, don't worry," Dawn said soothingly. "Just stay safe so they don't get you, alright?"

The girl nodded hesitantly as Lucas and Dawn took off.

"What is this place?" asked Dawn, gesturing at the windmills and building.

"This sign calls it Valley Windworks. It looks like they're an energy company that utilizes wind power."

"Well, let's check it out…"

"Be careful," warned Lucas, holding his staff at the ready. Dawn nodded and drew out her wand from its holder at her waist.

They shifted to the doors and quietly slipped through them; unfortunately, they slammed right into a bizarre man heading out the doors.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Intruders!"

Dawn quickly shot a Water Gun Spell at the man, blasting him down the hallway as more, identical people appeared just around the corner. Quickly, they encircled Dawn and Lucas.

"Who are you?" asked Lucas.

"And what did you do to your hair?" added Dawn, bemused at the strange shade of neon blue-green that gave the color of the messes of hair on each person's head.

"We are Team Galactic," said one of the people. "We're just Grunts. And this is called fashion," he said, jabbing a finger at his hair and directing the last comment at Dawn.

As Dawn snorted at the "fashionable" hair and earned many glares from the Grunts, Lucas took a more direct approach for information.

"Have you taken a man hostage?"

"So what if we have?" jeered another Grunt. She laughed. "You're just kids; you won't understand the great things Team Galactic is planning!"

With that, the ten Grunts attacked.

They each held out their hands and a malicious purple aura formed around each of them. Glowing, purple darts began to shoot at Lucas and Dawn. Lucas quickly brought up his staff and formed a yellow barrier, deflecting the needles. As the Grunts scattered to avoid their repelled attack, Lucas and Dawn took the opportunity to move on.

As they rounded the corner, Grunts hot on their tail, Dawn turned around and shot an Aurora Beam Spell at the wall, creating a frozen, rainbow-hued wall that sealed off the corridor. Running around a last table, they saw a man tied up in a chair and a woman interrogating him.

"How do you activate the power?" she screeched. The man refused to answer. "Tell me, or I promise you you'll never see your precious daughter again!"

The man's eyes paled, but the woman's attention was caught on Dawn and Lucas as they appeared around a table. She snorted.

"Useless Grunts… I'll have to deal with the intruders myself. Now tell me, who are you? And why are you here?"

"I think we should be asking _you_ those questions," retorted Dawn. "After all, you just took over the entire plant."

She laughed. "I like your spunk, kid. I'm one of Team Galactic's three Commanders; I'm Mars. We've been trying to create a new world that's better than this one... But people have shown little understanding about what we do. You don't understand either, do you? It's a little saddening... So, let's have a battle to decide what we should do next. If I win, you leave. If you win, we, Team Galactic, will leave!"

Without further ado, she jumped forward. She crossed her arms and then swung them up in an X shape, sending two blades of air flying at Lucas. Lucas blocked it with a Light Screen Spell while Dawn took the opportunity to shoot an Ice Shard Spell at Mars. The woman suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Dawn, kicking her sharply in the back.

With a cry of pain, Dawn was launched forward. Lucas turned and quickly blocked a Toxic Spell from Mars, but she quickly swung another Air Cutter Spell at him, smashing him into the wall and slicing his jacket.

"Looks like I win," said Mars, smirking. "Now get out."

"You haven't won yet," said Dawn, raising her wand and firing a stream of water at the Commander.

"Pitiful," said Mars, shaking her head. She raised a hand and produced a claw of aura. She destroyed Dawn's water with a single, swift slash and leisurely reclined in a chair. "Got anything else up your sleeves?"  
Lucas slowly staggered upright, as did Dawn. Lucas raised his staff above his head and concentrated.

"Get ready, Dawn!" he yelled as his spell took effect.

"What the –!"

The force of gravity suddenly intensified and everyone was buckled to the floor.

"All her spells need some sort of large movement," said Lucas, relaxing and allowing his spell to function properly. "If she can't move, she can't fight. Now, Dawn!"

Even as Dawn and Lucas extended their weapons to charge spells, Mars laughed.

"You forgot my Toxic Spell," she whispered. "If it reaches you… you'll be poisoned rather badly."

Dawn's eyes widened as purple goo oozed from Mars's splayed fingers.

"Don't bother, Dawn," yelled Lucas. "If we stop her, I'll end the Gravity Spell and we can deal with the Toxic after that!"

A rainbow-hued spiral burst from Lucas's staff, and Dawn strengthened her resolve and used the Aurora Beam Spell with Lucas's Extrasensory. The two attacks converged on a screaming Mars and she was knocked unconscious and frozen on the spot. Quickly, Lucas released his Gravity Spell and Dawn neutralized Toxic with water. They both ran over to the man, who was knocked over onto his face by Lucas's spell, and quickly sat him upright and untied him.

"Thank you," he gasped. "I couldn't breathe like that…"

"No problem," said Dawn, helping the man to stand. "You're daughter's waiting for you on Route 205."

Without further hesitation, the man ran out of the energy plant. Lucas and Dawn limped along with him and smiled when they saw the man embrace his daughter tightly. They turned and finally decided to examine their injuries.

"Your jacket," said Dawn, lifting it and grimacing at the sliced pattern. "Did that Air Cutter go deeper?"

"No," said Lucas, examining his red sweater. "I should be fine. How about you? She kicked you pretty hard."

"I'm fine too," said Dawn, stretching her back and getting a few cricks out of it. "It's just a little sore."

"Well, if we're both fine, let's get going," sighed Lucas. They walked over to the plant worker. "Sir, we'll be leaving now. We hope you'll be alright in the future."

"Thank you so much," said the man. "I hope you stay safe as well."

Leaving the reunited father and daughter, Lucas and Dawn continued on their way to Eterna City.

"By the way," said Lucas, "did you notice any of the Grunts or Mars when we left Valley Windworks?"

Dawn shook her head.

"That's weird..."

Continuing on, the pair meandered slowly through the peaceful countryside; before they knew it, they stood outside the immense Eterna Forest. Trees loomed overhead and blocked light from entering. Even so, grass grew abundantly throughout the forest. Lucas and Dawn glanced at each other, sighed, and entered the next obstacle of their quest. Little did they know that the forest held more dangers than they cared to believe…

"Who are the kids?"

"Who knows?"

"Well… we'll stop them."

"Get rid of them as soon as they reach that point."

"Get rid of them?"

"Destroy them."


	4. Chapter 4

True Magic

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

Chapter Four

"No!"

Dawn woke up and sent a blast of aura to fill the encampment. The shining light quickly startled Lucas.

"What? Dawn, it's two in the morning. We're supposed to be sleeping, remember?"

"I… felt something. It was bad."

"Really? Well, let's just be on the alert then. Guard duty?"

"I'll go first."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Alright then…"

Lucas went back to sleep. The two had journeyed for the entire day, only to find themselves lost within the trees of Eterna Forest. They finally decided to rest and found the nearest clearing to set up camp in. Dawn sat on her sleeping bag and stared blankly into the darkness.

"They're so noisy," whispered a figure in the trees as he watched the pair.

"They're pretty stupid too if they didn't even set up any protections around their camp," said another figure. "As soon as they get unaware, we move in."

"How did the girl sense us the first time though?" asked the other figure. "She shouted and sent her aura in a bubble around the entire campsite just as we went in to attack. That aura froze us, remember?"

"Who cares?" said the second figure, although he was still shivering. "It doesn't matter."

"If she does it again, it'll matter," retorted the first figure. "Well, let's move in and try it again.

The two figures slinked into the campsite. They attempted to be stealthy and stick to the shadows, but their idiocy prevented that from happening; their figures were quickly illuminated by the dwindling campfire, clearly illuminating their Galactic Grunt uniforms.

Once again, Dawn's eyes snapped open and she quickly saw the Grunts.

"Lucas!" she shouted.

"What?"

Lucas quickly sat up. The Grunts jumped when they were discovered and tried to scamper away, but Dawn fired off an Aurora Beam from her hand, freezing the Grunts feet. Lucas leapt to his feet and grabbed his staff, turning to face the Grunts.

They quickly melted the ice around their feet by exuding a vortex of fire around them that Lucas identified as the Fire Spin Spell. They both jumped backwards, but not without exchanging a few more spells.

Lucas aimed an Extrasensory at them and snatched them with the spell before hurling them off into the forest. Just as the Grunts were relinquished, they fired darts from their hands as they were vaulted into the trees.

"Nice," commented Dawn as she saw the Grunts vanish. Lucas grinned, but it soon changed to a grimace as he noticed the darts stuck in his arm. The purple stingers slowly seemed to melt into him.

"Are you okay?" asked Dawn, gesturing at the two holes from the Poison Sting Spell. "Does that need medical attention or anything?"

"I should be fine," said Lucas, ignoring the pain rippling out from the spot where he was struck. "We really need to protect our camp with spells. Could you grab my bag?"

When Dawn handed over the white backpack, Lucas searched inside and found paper and a brush that exuded magical ink.

"If we want to be somewhat safe, we'll need to at least set up Reflect and Light Screen defenses," said Lucas, writing different diagrams onto a few, rectangular strips of paper. Soon, he had five diagrams of each spell. "Could you set these around the camp?"

Dawn took the papers and alternated the spell tag she placed down each time as she formed a rough circle of paper around the camp. Lucas then placed his hand on the ground and pulsed each tag with aura that he ran through the earth. Transparent barriers erupted around the camp, forming a dome of protective power.

"We should be fine now," said Lucas. "Let's just get what few more hours of sleep we can."

Dawn immediately complied, falling unconscious as soon as she was on her sleeping bag. Lucas, on the other hand, moaned in pain as spasms racked his body. He stayed awake the entire night.

When Dawn woke up, the first thing she noticed was that a few stronger rays of sunlight were streaming into her eyes. The next thing she realized was that someone was breathing heavily as though sick. Considering that she was not that someone, she realized that it must have been Lucas.

She scrambled over to the young man and quickly noticed something wrong. His expression was one of contorted pain, and he twisted back and forth every now and then. He was somewhat asleep, but the pain was still affecting him.

"It must have been that Poison Sting from last night," Dawn said, lifting Lucas's arm and examining the puncture marks. "But how do I cure poisoning?"

She crouched closer to Lucas and felt his forehead; there were no signs of fever, but he was poisoned, Dawn realized, not sick.

Abruptly, Dawn squeaked as she was pulled down by Lucas. He was hugging her to his body tightly and his head was buried in her hair. Dawn found her head pressed against Lucas's chest and felt a strange sensation of nuzzling on top of her head.

"Let go of me!" hissed Dawn, trying to push away. Lucas had none of it, clamping his hands around her even tighter. "Are you really going to make a habit out of this?"

Lucas's only response was to nestle his head deeper into Dawn's hair. His spasms lessened in severity as he took deep breaths of Dawn's scent.

"Flowers…"

"Are you saying I smell?" asked Dawn indignantly, before realizing that it was a compliment, or as much of a compliment as it could be given Lucas's unconscious state. "Oh… you want flowers? I'll go pick some."

Lucas nuzzled Dawn's hair with his nose.

"Or maybe I won't."

Dawn found herself comfortably warm and shrugged, figuring that she might as well make the most of the situation. She relented her thrashing and relaxed into Lucas's grip. Lucas almost immediately responded by relaxing as well, and soon, even though it was already mid-morning, Lucas was sleeping peacefully. Dawn quickly wriggled out of his grip.

"Whew," sighed Dawn. "You really are a snuggly sleeper, aren't you?"

She stood, stretched, and then shrieked as she noticed a green-haired figure standing outside of the protective barrier. The person had long, green hair done in a braid at the back while, in the front, her hair split into two leaf-like shapes. A stray strand of hair was at the level of the woman's green eyes. In fact, Dawn noticed, pretty much everything about the woman was green.

"You're friend needs help," she said. "Please let me through and allow me to assist him."

"Who are you?" asked Dawn, picking up her wand. "How do I know you won't just attack us?"

"My name is Cheryl. I won't attack you. In fact, I've been looking for someone to help me lately. I need to get out of Eterna Forest, but I'm afraid that those strange people from that strange Team Galactic will bother me. Would you please help me?"

"I still don't know if I can trust you," said Dawn doubtfully.

"You can keep that wand on me the entire time. I'll heal your friend, but please, assist me out of the forest."

Dawn finally relented and removed the spell tags, placing them in a pouch on her bag. The woman sat down next to Lucas.

"He's been poisoned. I'll use a healing spell called Refresh. It heals poisoning, burns, and paralysis," said Cheryl. "Where was he injured?"

Dawn showed the woman Lucas's punctured arm. She nodded and placed a hand on the wound. A shimmering, green glow enveloped Cheryl; she focused this glow into her hand. The shimmer slowly sank into Lucas's wound, and Lucas's spasms and twitches halted.

"Wow!" exclaimed Dawn. "I definitely need to learn that!"

Cheryl smiled softly. Lucas groaned and sat up, grabbing his injured arm.

"What happened? Who are you?" he asked, directing the question at Cheryl.

"You were poisoned," explained Dawn. "This nice old lady is Cheryl; she healed you. She needs our help getting out of the forest."

"Old lady?" asked Cheryl, an eyebrow raised.

"Uh… okay? But why do you need our help? You've proved that you're capable of using powerful spells," said Lucas.

"I'm afraid I'm only a healer," sighed Cheryl. "I'm not very good for anything else."

"Well, considering that we need to get out of Eterna Forest too, we don't mind helping you at all, right Dawn?"

"Right!"

"Alright, just let us pack up and we'll be on our way."

As soon as the two finished gathering their things, the group set out into the woods again, following the well-worn path before realizing one more problem.

"Uh, Cheryl?" said Lucas.

"Yes?"

"We don't know how to get out of Eterna Forest."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. I know the paths."

"Really?" asked Dawn. "Great!

Past that difficulty, they made it out of the forest with no interference.

"Oh, I'm so relieved… We finally got here. I would never have been able to get through myself. Thank you so much," said Cheryl, bowing and then walking away.

"We're on the northern half of Route 205," said Lucas, examining a map he brought. "Eterna is east of here, right across that bridge."

"We'll go and take out that Block Spell then!" exclaimed Dawn, sprinting to the city.

"Dawn, _wait_!"

She skidded to a halt halfway across the bridge.

"What?" asked Dawn as Lucas caught up to her.

"You don't know the boundaries of the spell, so you might accidently step too far," said Lucas exasperatedly.

"Well, how do we find the boundaries?" asked Dawn, tapping an impatient foot.

"I don't know. We need someone on the inside of the city to communicate with us."

Dawn pondered this for a moment before slapping her forehead.

"How about those things Mom gave us?" she said, quickly taking out her lens.

"Oh, I forgot about those," said Lucas, fixing his to his head. "Let's see… Yep, there it is."

Through their lenses, they saw a glimmering dome surrounding the entire city.

"Now the problem is getting rid of those spell tags," said Lucas. "Where would they be?"

"If the magic originates from the tags, won't the spell be stronger near the tags?" asked Dawn.

"It would make sense to think so, but how do you detect magical strength with these things?"

Lucas tapped the headset and fiddled with a few buttons on the side of the metal.

"Hmm… that can't be right… that just turned the world upside down… ah, right-side up again… hmm… oh, here we go."

He and Dawn both pressed one of the buttons, and the magical barrier became brighter in a few areas and remained dim in the rest.

"Okay, you were right. Let's head over to those brighter places," said Lucas.

"The first one is right in front of us," said Dawn. "I don't see a tag anywhere, though…"

"Underground?" suggested Lucas. He poked the dirt with his staff. A section of the ground cracked off from the rest and flipped over, revealing a piece of paper clearly issuing magical power.

"Now, to incinerate it," said Lucas, sending small pieces of flame from his fingertips at the paper. It quickly burned to ashes.

"Why is the barrier still intact?" asked Dawn, looking through her lens.

"There are other tags. If one tag is destroyed, then the rest have to compensate for the loss and extend their reach. That weakens the spell, but ensures that the spell still functions. Of course, you could also just remove the barrier from this section of the city while the rest of the spell maintains normal strength, but that would be useless."

"Lucas, come this way. I think there's another tag here."

"Yeah, could you take care of that one? If we split up, we'll get rid of them faster," said Lucas, sparing her a quick glance before heading in the opposite direction.

"Alright," said Dawn, scanning the area around her. She glanced into the trees and spotted a rectangular leaf; the tag was disguised. "Bye, little tag!" she said cheerfully, raising a hand and casting the Razor Shell Spell. A blue curve formed from her aura and she quickly bisected the spell tag. She glanced back at the Block Spell and saw it become dimmer.

"Great," she said, moving on to the next spell tag. The spell became even dimmer, and Dawn realized that Lucas must have dealt with another tag. She grinned and kept searching.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the city, a purple-haired woman seethed as she received reports of the Block Spell around the city weakening.

"Well, I guess I saw this coming eventually," she said, rolling her eyes and calming down. "They wouldn't have left us alone for that long. Too bad they can't do anything to stop us. Even Gardenia can't since we've got so many of their wizards to use as hostages."

Jupiter descended the stairs to the basement of the building and smirked at the sight of almost all of Eterna City's wizards hopelessly scattered. She saw a group attempting to use magic and scoffed.

"Don't even bother," she said. "We've set up this room to stop magic. The entire place is coated with a Disable Spell."

"Jupiter, you'll go down eventually," said one woman with orange hair. Her poncho shook as she shuddered fiercely. "We just have to wait."

"Oh, shut up, Gardenia," said Jupiter.

A Grunt ran over to her.

"Commander, the Block Spell has been eradicated."

"Fine. Dismissed."

The reporting Grunt went back to his post, leaving Jupiter to contemplate.

"Who could it be? We received no news of incoming forces…"

* * *

"Nice," said Lucas. "The spell is gone."

They put away their lenses and entered the city cautiously.

"Maybe we should find the wizards here. Professor Rowan did say to do that," said Dawn, glancing around.

"Where would we find them?"

"The rest center?"

"Best chance."

They immediately made way for the red building, but stopped when another towering sight caught their eyes.

"That doesn't really match up with the whole old-town idea of Eterna," said Dawn, pointing at the vibrant building, complete with its own orbiting ring.

"No, it doesn't," remarked Lucas dryly, looking away and entering the rest center.

"Nurse Joy?" called Dawn. Nobody answered the call.

The two looked around at the depressing center. It was clearly empty; dust was beginning to gather amidst other things.

"Nobody…" said Lucas. "Looks like they were all taken away."

"Yeah…"

"Quite an awful situation they're in, isn't it?"

Dawn and Lucas whipped around to see a blonde woman walking into the center. Her gray eyes were filled with worry.

"I've finally arrived and everyone has already been taken. Quite the awful situation, I'd say."

"Who are you?" asked Dawn.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself. My name is Cynthia. I'm a wizard, and I presume you two are as well."

"We are," confirmed Lucas. "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping to assist Gardenia, but she wasn't anywhere to be found. I can only assume that she was taken."

"They defeated the local master wizard?" asked Lucas. "That's not good."

"They might have taken her, but I doubt that they could defeat here," said Cynthia. "They probably used the other wizards as hostages and forced her to cooperate…"

"There's no time to rest, then!" yelled Dawn. "We'll find Team Galactic and get all the wizards back safely!"

Cynthia chuckled.

"I admire your determination, but I doubt they'll let us get near them that easily. I'm pretty sure that the strange orbiting building is their hideout, so we'll need to find a way to sneak in unnoticed. Why don't we team up?"

"Sure!" said Dawn. "It's nice to get some help."

"We could use some spell that would create a diversion, or maybe a sight-obscuring fog," suggested Lucas.

"It's our best bet, but the fog will let them know we're here," sighed Cynthia. "This is very troublesome, but we'll have to do it."

"Alright, then Dawn, we'll need you to use the Mist Spell," said Lucas.

"Got it."

They headed outside and Dawn subtly let a stream of fog flow from her fingertips.

"Let's move so they don't know where the fog is coming from," whispered Cynthia. She snapped her fingers and the trio were suddenly relocated to a bike shop.

"Whoa," said Lucas. "How did you do that?"

"Teleport Spell," replied Cynthia.

"You can use that spell without the diagram?" asked Lucas, amazed. "That requires a lot of power!"

Cynthia smiled.

"Yes, it does."

"Incredible," said Lucas, fitting in the word before they were moved again.

* * *

"What's this fog?" demanded Jupiter, who was peering out the window. "It's popping out of random places everywhere in the city! A counterattack?"

"Ma'am, the fog is getting steadily heavier," reported a Grunt. "It is clearly infused with magic as well."

"Well then, get rid of it," said Jupiter. "I want to see whatever is going to happen."

"Yes, ma'am!"

* * *

Dawn was a little short of breath once the entire city was coated in the thick mist. Cynthia smiled appreciatively at her.

"Alright, now, let's head into the building. Dawn, since you cast the spell and thus can see through it, you'll have to lead. Could you also use Mist again when we get into their hideout?"

"Of course."

"Good. Now, I'm going to use a spell on all of us that will distract Team Galactic, even if only for a little while. Are you ready?"

"Yes!"

"Uh-huh."

"Here."

Cynthia clapped her hands together and all three wizards were encompassed in a dull light. Suddenly, copies of each of them materialized next to their original counterparts.

"Whoa!" said Dawn. "What's this?"

"It's a spell called Double Team," explained Cynthia, organizing everyone into groups of three consisting of one of each person. "It creates illusory copies of oneself. They vanish the moment they're hit, though. Now, each Dawn will be able to lead through the fog and the others will follow. The illusions will be a distraction; this way, Team Galactic won't know who the real people are until they destroy all of the illusions."

"Cool," said Lucas. "We've got ten different groups including us."

"That's should be good enough. We'll need to get into the building, find the wizards and help them out quickly without causing too much ruckus," said Cynthia. "Then we'll go back and deal with Team Galactic later."

"Wait a second," said Dawn. Her eyes darted around. "My Mist Spell is dispersing."

"They must be using the Defog Spell," said Cynthia. "Alright, Dawn, we'll need you to keep using mist even as we get in there. Lucas and I will do the fighting if need be, alright? You just focus on Mist."

"Right! Well then, let's go!"

* * *

"We'll need to have a nice welcoming party for our guests, won't we?" snickered Jupiter.

"Um… shall I set the dining room, ma'am?" asked one of the Grunts.

"YOU IMBECILE! SET THE TRAPS, NOT THE DINING ROOM!"

"Oh, of course! My bad," said the Grunt, rushing away.

Jupiter snorted.


	5. Chapter 5

True Magic

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

Chapter Five

With a loud thud, Dawn tripped. Sprawling into the floor, she quickly recovered and rubbed her head.

"What's wrong? Can't you see in the fog?" asked Lucas.

"I don't know," replied Dawn. "It felt like I tripped on… wire!"

"Watch out!" shouted Cynthia, pointing above them. A ceiling pane had opened, revealing a gap through which copious amounts of fire began to spew from.

"Everyone, keep moving! Dawn, watch out for more traps," yelled Lucas as he blocked the flames with Light Screen.

Grunts were soon advancing on the groups, throwing attacks randomly and making the Double Team clones poof out of existence in flashes of light.

"Those clones aren't going to last long at this rate," said Lucas grimly as they ran through the building. "I already saw at least three groups get annihilated."

"Don't worry, I can make more," said Cynthia. "We need to focus on finding those wizards. Dawn, lead on."

"Right!"

They made frantic turns at every corner, hoping to randomly find the captured wizards. Dawn's eyes were focused mainly on any sort of possible trap while Cynthia and Lucas looked for a basement or secret room. Dawn's eyes widened as the mist she was still creating outlined a maze of thin wires.

"Stop!" screamed Dawn. The group halted just before the first line of wire. "We need to be careful here. There're a ton of wires everywhere."

"Right," replied Cynthia. "Good job. I'll make more distraction clones as we get through here."

They began to slowly follow Dawn into the treacherous maze of metal, with a copy of one of them splitting away and running off every now and then. The wires proved extremely sensitive and almost impossible to navigate, proved by the fact that Lucas accidentally brushed a line of wire and caused the wall to open and send a deluge of water at them.

"No need to worry about the traps now!" shouted Dawn. "Just run! I'll stop the water!"

Lucas and Cynthia ran ahead blindly, tripping and getting entangled in threads even as they broke free of ones they already charged through. Dawn had taken control of the water with her aura and was forcing it back into the hole, freezing a good part of it to act as the wall it flooded through. The trio was soon up and running and they soon stumbled down a flight of stairs. At the end of the hallway they were in stood a solid, iron door.

"That must be it," said Cynthia, pointing to the door.

"Alright, let's go," said Lucas. Lucas quickly yanked the handle and entered the room. Cynthia quickly addressed the wizards and informed them of the situation. Dawn was just about to follow the two when strange symbols on the outer face of the door caught her attention.

"What are these?" whispered Dawn, looking over the intricate patterns. She extended a hand to touch a symbol and received a shock of magic power in response. "A spell! Lucas, Cynthia, get out of that room right now!"

Cynthia heard the warning and quickly alerted Lucas. Promising the wizards that they would return to save them soon, they heeded Dawn's warning.

The door chose that moment to shut and seal itself tightly.

"No!" cried Lucas, slamming his fists into the metal. "We need to get out!"

He quickly tried to form an intense flame, but his aura refused to respond. "What?"

"They've set up a Disable Spell on this basement," sighed a woman with orange hair tiredly, coming over to Cynthia and Lucas. "We can't use magic."

"Gardenia!" exclaimed Cynthia.

"Hi, Cynthia," said Gardenia, smiling slightly. "At least we can talk now."

"You're Gardenia, the local master of Eterna City?" asked Lucas. "Cool!"

"Thanks, but I don't really deserve the title," sighed the woman. "I couldn't even save my own people from that wretched Team Galactic."

"It wasn't your fault," consoled Cynthia. "You wanted to keep everyone safe, so you didn't attack for fear of them hurting the wizards they already took. It's not your fault."

Even as the wizards inside the chamber bustled about at the new arrivals, Jupiter was gliding down the hallway. When a Grunt had brought her the news of the intruders being sealed into the wizard holding chamber, she had choked with glee, and now, she would finish them off.

Unfortunately, a girl was barring her access to the room.

"Eh? Did you want something?" asked Jupiter sardonically. "How silly of me to even ask. You want to free the wizards. Fine! I, Jupiter, will deal with you!"

"I don't think so," retorted Dawn. "You're the one that's going to be dealt with!"

Dawn unsheathed her wand and quickly shot a stream of water at Jupiter, who crossed her arms as a shield to block the attack.

"How insolent," sneered Jupiter. "Take a bite of this, child!"

A white ring of energy formed above Dawn's head and a boulder dropped through it. Dawn created a thick shield of ice above her head and continued her spell, forming a slide that led straight into the hallway.

Jupiter hissed as the Rock Slide Spell she used was easily repulsed and used against her by the brat. She quickly flattened herself against a wall as the huge boulder rolled past. After that ordeal, the Commander retaliated with a powerful spell, sending a red beam of energy at Dawn.

Dawn attempted to shield herself with her arms, but she fell right into the spell. It quickly outlined Dawn's entire figure and sapped away some of her aura, bringing half of what it took back to Jupiter.

Dawn collapsed on the floor, panting heavily through the sting of the spell.

"That's a very convenient spell," remarked Jupiter, examining her nails. "It's called Giga Drain; it sucks away some of your opponent's energy, or aura, and replenishes your own with theirs. Quite useful."

"You evil woman," muttered Dawn as she unsteadily got back on her feet. "I won't let you win!"

"Oh? You still have some fight left in you. Well, good. I like a challenge."

And with those words, Jupiter exhaled a thick, black smokescreen. Dawn quickly backed up as much as she could and suddenly realized, as the smoke overtook the air, that her Mist Spell had been destroyed.

"You can't see now," came the voice of the Commander through the sight-obscuring smoke. "And you're completely vulnerable because your aura levels are dropping."

Dawn felt a force punching directly into her stomach. She choked from the force and spat out saliva as she was rammed into the door by a purple fist.

"That was my Poison Jab. Like it?"

_I'm going to faint soon,_ thought Dawn. _I've got to end this. But without aura, I can't do a thing!_

"Here's the last move," rang Jupiter's voice. "Even if you aren't ready, here it comes!"

_I need aura!_

"Hah!" screamed Jupiter, launching two crescent blades of blue energy at Dawn.

Jupiter's SmokeScreen Spell was blown away by the force of impact as the blades of energy made contact. A thick smoke from the collision quickly accumulated and replaced Jupiter's earlier spell.

"And game over," said Jupiter, straightening and placing a hand on her hip. "That was too easy."

Jupiter advanced into the smoke and prepared to assault those inside the holding chamber. She was ready to let loose and have some fun.

She took a step forward and unlocked the door with her aura. She took one more step and was about to grab the handle of the door. Before she could place her foot down, she was frozen to the spot.

"What?" gasped Jupiter as her lower body was encased in ice. "How?"

Dawn emerged from the smoke and grinned triumphantly.

"You underestimated me."

"How did you escape?" snarled Jupiter.

"I've got a backup supply of aura," said Dawn, silently fingering the enchanted hairclips that Lucas gave to her earlier. "I replenished myself with the supply and blocked your earlier spell before stopping you right here."

"Losing to some child… Being careless cost me too much," growled Jupiter.

"It did," smirked Dawn.

"Well, aren't you tough," sneered Jupiter. "It's okay though. Mars has collected the energy from Valley Windworks and we don't even need these wizards anymore, so we're pretty much finished here. I'll let you in on one thing. Our boss is researching the myths of legendary creatures. With the power of those ancient powers, he will become the ruler of Sinnoh… I suggest you keep out of Team Galactic's affairs from now on. This is your last warning!"

"Oh, shut up," said Dawn, using her air magic to lift Jupiter off the floor and throw her back up the stairs. "And leave, now," finished Dawn as she rather harshly smashed Jupiter to the floor, shattering her ice shell. The Commander scrambled away angrily.

Dawn turned back to the door and used her Razor Shell to create a deep slash in the symbols, destroying the spell. She quickly opened the door and was greeted by the wizards inside.

"What happened?" asked a confused Lucas. "What were you doing?"

Dawn shrugged and answered, "I just blasted away another one of Team Galactic's Commanders."

"Good job," said Cynthia, ushering the wizards out of the dank basement. "You did well."

"Seriously!" cheered Gardenia.

"Who're you?" asked Dawn, staring at the newcomer inquisitively. She gasped. "Are you…"

"Yep!" answered Gardenina triumphantly.

"Oh my goodness!" squealed Dawn. "You really are the baker from Veilstone? Can I have a muffin? Please?"

Gardenia twitched slightly before punching Dawn out of the building.

"I'M ETERNA CITY'S LOCAL MASTER, YOU FOOL!" screamed Gardenia.

"I think that was a bit excessive," said Lucas as he stared at the Dawn-shaped hole in the ceiling.

"Well, thank you all for removing Team Galactic from this city," said Gardenia, ignoring Lucas's comment. "It was very kind of you to do so."

"Of course, Gardenia. Well, I'll be seeing you all!" replied Cynthia cheerily as she disappeared.

"Where'd she go?" asked Lucas.

"Probably to the middle of the ocean or something like that," said Gardenia, shrugging. "She does that every few weeks to make sure water still exists."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Um… sure…"

"Yeah. See you later!"

The master wizard ran up the stairs and out of the building, leaving Lucas to his thoughts. He mused slowly about the existence of water before realizing that Dawn probably needed help, wherever Gardenia had punched her to.

He found her two hours later happily sitting in the wizard rest center and drinking tea.

"I LOOKED EVERYWHERE FOR YOU!" roared Lucas the moment she was within hearing range. "AND YOU'RE SITTING RIGHT HERE? DO YOU KNOW HOW _WORRIED_ I WAS?"

Dawn was clearly surprised and quickly tried to calm down Lucas, who was currently pouting childishly and refusing to talk to her.

"I'm sorry," said Dawn, rolling her eyes. "Sheesh, I just wanted a break after almost getting my bones broken by that lady."

"Humph."

"Were you really that worried?" asked Dawn shyly.

The question seemed to catch Lucas off guard; he started and averted his eyes embarrassedly.

"Aw, that's cute of you," said Dawn, grinning wickedly. She was never going to let him forget about this. "Oh," she said, remembering something else, "I still need to thank you for getting me these hairclips. They saved my life when I was fighting Jupiter."

"…"

"Are you sulking?"

Dawn sighed when she received no answer and continued to slowly sip her tea, ignoring the dark aura of a sulking Lucas coming from the corner of the center. She wondered how long he would last before relenting.

By the time the sun had set and the moon was twinkling merrily in the sky with the stars, Dawn was the sulking one. Lucas had successfully managed to avoid conversation, eye contact, anything for the past hours, leaving Dawn to stew in fury and sip her tea.

"How did this happen?" muttered Dawn, watching as Lucas cheerfully made reservations for the night. "He was supposed to be the annoyed one! Humph!"

Lucas ambled over to her and grinned childishly, taking the opportunity to seek revenge for her earlier taunts against him.

"Are you done sulking?"

"You were the one sulking in the afternoon," retorted Dawn. "Now give me my room pass so I can go to sleep!"

"Oh," said Lucas, putting on a thoughtful expression, "I forgot to get you a room. You see, I didn't think you'd talk to me or accept any offer of sincerity so I didn't even bother… Oops." Lucas shrugged noncommittally.

Dawn flared in rage and began to storm off before Lucas quickly caught her shoulder.

"Hey, I was just joking," he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "Please don't get mad."

Dawn crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Enough with the child's play, Lucas," said Dawn severely. "You're nineteen. I didn't even _know_ you had a personality like someone who was three."

"You were the one sulking for at least two hours," pointed out Lucas. "I don't think you're in any position to talk."

"Are you going to give me my room pass or not?"

Sensing that if he prolonged the fun any longer, he would get his head frozen into an ice cube, Lucas quickly presented the pass to Dawn.

"Thank you," said Dawn, snatching the card. "Now, good night!"

A few minutes later, Dawn was safely hidden in her room.

"He's so infuriating," she mumbled, banging her head against the wall.

"Now, now, that can't be good for your brain."

Dawn jumped and turned to see Lucas entering the room.

"What are you doing in here?" shrieked Dawn. "And how did you get in?"

"Well, this is my room."

"No, this is _my_ room!"

"Well, it's mine too."

"GET YOUR OWN ROOM, PERVERT!"


	6. Chapter 6

True Magic

A/N: WHAT IS THIS, AN _UPDATE? _I just felt like coming back to this story for some reason... I don't know, there might be random updates in the future...

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Chapter Six

* * *

"Congratulations," said Professor Rowan. His beard had grown even whiter, if possible, from the stress, it seemed. "I'm glad you managed to free Eterna."

Lucas and Dawn, who had just been woken up by an extremely happy Nurse Joy, smiled into the computer screen to talk with Professor Rowan.

"Thanks to Dawn, at least," said Lucas, patting her shoulder. "We really couldn't have done it without her. And we had some help from a lady named Cynthia."

Professor Rowan, who had just taken a sip of tea, spluttered and spewed the liquid over the computer screen; Lucas and Dawn screamed in shock at the ungraceful action.

"PROFESSOR ROWAN!" they yelled simultaneously in panic, "ARE YOU OKAY? DID YOU EAT SOMETHING BAD? ARE YOU SICK? WE'VE NEVER SEEN YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT BEFORE!"

A napkin briefly wiped the surface of the screen. "Quite alright, in fact, I'm fine. But... _forget what you just saw_."

The professor's voice changed subtly, but Lucas caught on to the implication of a severe and painful death if anybody ever found out that Professor Rowan had spewed tea onto a computer. "We understand, Professor," Lucas said quickly.

"Oh _my!_ That was hilarious!" A voice in the background on the professor's side rang out clearly. "Professor Rowan, excuse me as I go tell everyone in Sinnoh and show them this lovely video of you spewing your drink! Bye-bye!"

Dawn looked queerly at the screen. "That sounded like —"

"Your mother, yes," finished Professor Rowan, rubbing his eyes in exasperation. "She is still acting... _unpleasant_, shall we say. Anyways, back to the topic: you were helped by Cynthia? Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time before she joined in the fun."

"The _fun?_" hissed Lucas. "The _FUN?_"

"Figure of speech, my young assistant. Did you not know? She's the Champion Wizard of Sinnoh," said Professor Rowan.

"She is?" gasped Dawn. "No way! Couldn't she have just taken care of this herself then?"

"I honestly have no idea," replied Professor Rowan, casually sipping his tea again. "She has the strangest mind, I can't figure her out. But, back to business. I suggest you move on to another city or town to get closer to Veilstone City. There seems to be another barricade spell, probably the Block Spell like in Eterna. I suggest teleporting to Solaceon Town or Pastoria City, although I think Solaceon is closer. Take a day or so to rest, but there's no time to waste."

The screen zapped out as Rowan ended the call. Lucas and Dawn pulled back, stretching from their bent position in front of the computer.

"Okay, I suggest we stay here for one more day to regain our full strength," said Lucas. "We can't do anything in a weakened condition, especially you after fighting that lady."

"Good idea," agreed Dawn, a dreamy look entering her eyes. "We could go check out some places, maybe find a nice restaurant, have a classy dinner —"

"We're going to start by learning more spells," interrupted Lucas, who had not been paying attention to Dawn's rambling. "More, more, more. We need all the power we can get if we're going to target Veilstone City. Let's go grab some books and we can study in the center's lobby."

"Do I have too?"

"Yes. No complaining, let's go."

And, despite Lucas's command, Dawn moaned and whined for the rest of the morning.

* * *

The clock just turned to noon when Dawn slammed her book shut, startling Lucas so much that he nearly fell out of his chair. "It's lunch time," Dawn declared. "And this time, you can't stop me."

"Oh, alright," sighed Lucas, sliding a bookmark into his tome and setting it down. "Where do you suggest?"

"I have no idea," said Dawn airily, getting up. "What kind of food do you like?"

Lucas shrugged. "Spicy, I guess. I love vanilla ice cream though."

"Okay... I'll go ask Nurse Joy for recommendations," said Dawn. Lucas nodded and got up; after three straight hours of sitting, his legs had fallen asleep and he wobbled slightly as he walked.

A moment later, Dawn returned. "There's a nice little restaurant down the street with great desserts, apparently," she said. Lucas nodded.

"Let's go then."

They carted all of their belongings back to their rooms and then walked out into the sunlight. Dawn was nearly skipping with joy at the prospect of a relaxing day and Lucas was stoically slipping on his beret. The restaurant was very quaint; the two entered and were immediately seated, with a waiter taking their orders and their dishes coming out in less than ten minutes.

"This looks great," said Dawn, salivating as she stared at her soup. "Absolutely amazing."

"I agree," said Lucas, who had also ordered soup, but one that was much spicier. "Well, dig in, I suppose."

Dawn was enjoying herself to the fullest; Lucas was composedly spooning soup into his mouth as he realized that he never really had any chance to truly relax. Even though they were in the middle of a crisis, Lucas figured that their afternoon off could maybe be a bit more relaxed than their morning. He smiled and leaned back, chatting with Dawn over their lunch and realizing how nice it was to simply be at ease.

And then came Lucas's favorite part of any meal: dessert. He immediately ordered a bowl of vanilla ice cream, while Dawn chose a nice sponge cake with a caramel sauce. When their desserts arrived, Lucas devoured his instantly, stunning Dawn.

"You have _such_ a sweet tooth," she said after she had managed to invigorate her slacked jaw into working again. "I cannot believe it."

"Hey, I enjoy food too," Lucas said defensively. "Just because I really like vanilla ice cream — and _only_ vanilla, mind you — doesn't mean I'm a slob. Like you."

"Hey, I take that as an insult, you know!" Dawn said, crossing her arms.

"I'd hope so, because it was intended to be one," countered Lucas, snitching a piece of her cake with his fork.

Dawn gasped. "Oh, that's just out of line!"

"I prefer to refer to it as a smart and witty comeback."

"I meant my cake, you cake thief!"

Dawn scoffed and then set to work on her dessert before Lucas could take any more of it. Lucas grinned and pulled out some money to pay for their meal. Dawn protested when she saw him pull out enough for both, but one of his steely looks silenced her and he continued to pay the full bill. Dawn, however, snuck in a tip for the waiter when Lucas wasn't looking and was extremely satisfied with her covert success.

It was only when they were out of the restaurant that Lucas said, "I saw you put that money in, you know."

"...You suck."

"You know, I was going to let us take the afternoon off, but one more insult from you might put us right back into the rest center for studying," teased Lucas, poking Dawn's arm. "Well?"

The young woman stiffened immediately; her head turned, a large smile plastered onto her expression. "Lucas, you're _so_ amazing. Why don't we go do whatever _you_ want to do?"

"You didn't have to go that far," said Lucas, "but, since you insist, sure."

Dawn choked and then punched his shoulder. "You really do suck."

"What did I say about studying?"

"Like you'd actually go through with your threat."

Lucas opened his mouth and then closed it, subdued. _How did she know I was going to relax in the afternoon anyways?_

"Exactly," continued Dawn. "You're so obvious, but you don't realize it. I can read you like a book." She smirked.

"You can?" Lucas said quietly, turning slightly to face Dawn. She nodded. "That's... interesting. But, you were right. What do you want to do?"

Dawn smiled and grabbed Lucas's hand, pulling him ahead. "Come on, let's check out the statue over there!"

Lucas' mouth twitched slightly; Dawn's hand was very warm.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur; Lucas actually enjoyed himself as they went around from place to place. But when Dawn suggested that they burn down Team Galactic's building, Lucas pulled her back to the rest center.

"Okay, we had fun for today," said Lucas. "But let's get a bit more serious now. We've still got a good three hours or so before we have to sleep, so I going out back to practice some spells. You coming?"

"Sure, let me grab my books..."

A few minutes later, Lucas and Dawn stood across from each other on a dirt field, each holding their respective weapons and a book of choice in their hands. Dawn immediately raised her wand.

"Water Pledge," she called, forcing a column of water to cascade towards Lucas.

The professor's assistant slammed his staff into the ground and said, "Fire Pledge." A tower of fire flew towards Dawn's spell, and the two attacks neutralized each other. "Nice."

"Yeah, it says in my book that there are three Pledge spells," said Dawn. "When you combine them, other stuff will happen..."

"Good to know for a combo attack," said Lucas. "Try to stop this one: Psyshock!"

"Protect!" yelled Dawn, conjuring a bluish dome around herself to block Lucas's psychic waves. "Now you try to block this. Icicle Crash!"

A gust of chilly wind flew from Dawn's wand over Lucas, and particles in the wind clumped together to form icicles that dropped down onto a transparent Barrier Spell from Lucas.

They continued to exchange spells until they began to feel slightly tired; deciding not to get too exhausted for the next days ahead of them, the two went back into the center and to their rooms. They settled down into their beds with slightly different thoughts.

_Well... Today was fun._

_This morning sucked._

It's pretty easy to tell who was who.


End file.
